Floyd Matthews | |
|---|---|
| Born | Floyd Huston Matthews February 3, 1903 |
| Died | February 24, 2008 Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital,Alabama |
| Other names | Skipper Matthews |
| Employer | U.S. Navy |
| Known for | Being the oldest submariner veteran (aged 105 in 2008) Use ofMomsen lung for submarine rescue (1939) |
Floyd Huston "Skipper" Matthews (February 3, 1903 – February 24, 2008) was, at age 105, anAmericanveteran of theUnited States Navy, in which he served for thirty years.[1] Matthews was the oldest living United States military veteran inAlabama as well as the oldest livingsubmariner at the time of his death at the age of 105.[1] He was also one of the oldest survivingWorld War II veterans and one of the few survivingWorld War I era veterans, according to the AlabamaDepartment of Veterans Affairs.[1]
Matthews was one of the first people to use theMomsen Lung rebreathing system, and used it to rescue 33 colleagues from a sunken submarine in 1939.[2]
Matthews was born in 1903[3] inWestpoint, Tennessee,[4] later living inLoretto, Tennessee.[5] When he was 16, he ran away from home to join the navy.
Matthews first enlisted in the United States Navy in 1919[6] in the months following the end ofWorld War I, when Matthews was aged 16[1] but pretending to be 19.[4]
He received two months of training at the U.S. Naval Training Center in Gulfport, Mississippi before being assigned to aUSS Pueblo and later to aUSS Kansas.[4] Altogether he served on 7 different submarines before World War II.[5]
Between the wars, he was involved in testing theMomsen Lung, a rubber bag that used soda lime to recycle exhaled air that was used to rescue trapped submariners, both in swimming pool trials inNew London, Connecticut and inKey West, Florida, where it was tested at a depth of 100 feet.[7] In 1939, he used the device to rescue 33 colleagues from theUSS Squalus, a sunken submarine.[6][8][2]
After WWI, Matthews served a tour as a military recruiter in Knoxville, and as a submarine escape instructor.[9][10]
During WWII, Matthews served as an executive officer aboard a salvage vessel duringNormandy Landings[7] before serving in thePacific.[1] By that time, he had risen through the ranks of the Navy to the level oflieutenant commander,[1] commending the ocean tugUSS Chickasaw[7] before retiring in 1949.[5]
He portrayed himself in the documentaryHanging by a thread, which was aired on BBC show Voyages of Discovery on April 11, 2021, 7 days after the death of his son Floyd in Loretto, Tennessee.[6][8][2]
Matthews was a resident ofFlorence, Alabama.[1] He was married to Vena Yocom Matthews.[11][3] He had three sons, Floyd, William, and John and two daughters, Sondra and Priscilla.[11]
Floyd Matthews died at Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital. He was survived by his sons, Bill and John.[1]
